January 5, 1981 (Monday)
- Battle of Dezful (Iran–Iraq War): For the first time since Iraq had invaded its territory in September, Iran launched a counterattack, concentrating its armies at Sousangerd. After 18 months, Iraqi forces had been driven out of Iran, which then began a drive toward capturing Iraqi territory. The war would continue until 1988.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first TV adaptation of the Douglas Adams book, debuted on BBC Two.
- Born: Deadmau5, Canadian DJ/Producer, as Joel Zimmerman in Niagara Falls, Ontario
- Died: Harold C. Urey, 87, American chemist who discovered the isotope deuterium, 1934 Nobel Prize laureate; Sir James Martin, 87, British engineer and inventor of ejection seat; and Lanza del Vasto, 79, philosopher, poet, and activist
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Famous quotes containing the word january:
“Here lies interred in the eternity of the past, from whence there is no resurrection for the days—whatever there may be for the dust—the thirty-third year of an ill-spent life, which, after a lingering disease of many months sank into a lethargy, and expired, January 22d, 1821, A.D. leaving a successor inconsolable for the very loss which occasioned its existence.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)